Baby Mine
by MegEvans1983
Summary: The sequel to "I Would Die for That" - a look at how family life has formed itself for Sam, Andy and Ava Swarek.


**A/N: **This is the sequel to "I Would Die for That" ... originally I hadn't counted on writing a sequel to that one-shot but after much coaxing from **svugirl25** I finally caved ;)

Inspiration struck and before I knew it, this existed, so I hope that you'll enjoy the read and leave me a word or two in the box at the bottom of the page.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _"Rookie Blue"_ and _"Baby Mine"_ is property of Alison Krauss.

* * *

Ava Grace Swarek is the pride and joy of her parents' lives; she is the epitome of a blessing in Sam and Andy's lives, which is also the meaning behind her name.

In Hebrew Ava stands for '_life',_ and in Latin Grace means '_a blessing'_, which without a doubt is what this little girl is to her parents.

They had been trying for a good year to get pregnant before a grainy image of Ava had suddenly showed up on an ultra sound a year and some change later.

She has had both of her parents wrapped around her little finger since the day she was born. But if you ask her mother, then she'll undoubtedly say that that only goes for her husband.

And vice versa.

* * *

_**Baby mine, don't you cry.  
Baby mine, dry your eyes.  
Rest your head close to my heart,  
Never to part,  
Baby of mine.**_

* * *

"How could you do _this_ to me?!" Andy screeches at her husband twenty hours into the agony of giving birth to their little girl.

Sam moves out of the corner in the delivery room that he'd been ordered into – no less than five minutes ago. Andy had sworn vengeance in the form of calling up Price, and making her sit on him until she'd told him every detail about her hobby dealing with antique furniture and so forth.

"Sweetheart," he murmurs at her softly with so much love in his eyes that Andy feels like the biggest bitch in all of Toronto.

"I'm sorry..," she breaks down for what seems like the umpteenth time today. "Don't leave me," Andy begs him with tears running down her cheeks.

"Sweetheart," Sam chuckles, pressing his lips against her sweat soaked forehead. "Not even Price or Epstein could drag me away from you." He promises. "And that's saying something."

"You promise?" Andy asks, sniffling before wiping her nose in a far from lady-like menner.

"I do."

"Good, because I think I'm about to go into full-on bitch mode any second now," she warns him anticipating her next contraction on a wince.

Andy has barely finished her sentence when the newly arrived Traci snorts out loud at what she is hearing.

"What?!" she barks at her newly arrived best friend.

Traci holds up both hands in mock surrender before taking her place on the opposite side of the bed.

"I'm sorry," Andy tells Traci covering her face with her hands in utter exasperation. "Again," she adds.

"We're used to it," Sam and Traci reply in unison before sharing a knowing look with each other over Andy's head.

"Hey!" she exclaims looking up from her hands to look between the Detectives', as if she is watching a tennis game.

"How is everything in here?" the doctor asks upon entering the delivery room with a big smile on his face.

"How do you _think_ it _is_?!" Andy snaps at him. "I'm in agony over here! I'm tired, it hurts everywhere and I've just about had enough of you all going la-la-la-la-la around me!" she yells blowing a strand of errant hair from her otherwise sticky forehead.

"Hormones!" Traci sing-songs at the good doctor before he takes a seat on a stool by the end of the bed to see how much Andy's dilated.

"Oh, what do you know?!" she glares at Traci, who just arches an eyebrow at the very rare sight of Andy being pissed off at her.

"I _have_ done this before you know," she tells her best friend.

"I'm sorry!" Andy exclaims bursting into tears again. "I'm the worst friend, wife, Detective and mother-to-be to ever walk the streets of Toronto – I know!" she wails.

"You're exhausted, baby," Sam rubs her arm in a soothing gesture, but Andy removes her arm roughly letting him know that she doesn't need him to fuss all over her.

"All righty!" Traci locks eyes with the good doctor indicating that they should probably get the show on the road if Andy is to have any loved ones left _after_ the birth.

"You're good to go, Mrs. Swarek," he informs her right before getting a tongue-lashing from Andy as well for interrupting a private conversation between her and her husband.

But on a flick of a dime, her face contorts into a beaming smile. "Can I have my baby now, Dr. Thomas?"

"Absolutely!" he exclaims before telling Sam and Traci how they should help Andy when he'll ask her to push in a minute.

Thirty minutes later, Ava Grace Swarek is swathed in pink from top to toe and lying contentedly in her mother's arms, as she meets a small portion of her very large family on that very first day of her life.

* * *

_**Little one when you play,  
Don't you mind what they say.  
Let those eyes sparkle and shine,  
Never a tear,  
Baby of mine.**_

* * *

"That's a McNally trait, right there," Sam points out one day when he and Andy are lying on the floor with Ava. The baby is lying on a blanket with a lion rattle in her mouth talking gibberish around the toy.

After Ava had been born, Sam, the proud father that he was, had rushed down into the hospital lobby to see if he could buy a toy of some sort in the gift shop. In his hurry to get Andy to the hospital, he had not thought to bring all the presents with him that he had bought for Ava.

He had come across this rattle with a lion's head on top and had immediately thought of Andy, and that if their daughter grew up to be anything like her lion-hearted mother then Sam would have his work cut out for him.

"What?" Andy asks arching an inquisitive eyebrow at him. "Playing with a rattle in her mouth? Keep digging that hole for yourself over there, Swarek." She jokes.

Sam grins at her, tongue in cheek, "I was referring to the babbling." He says bending down to blow a raspberry kiss on Ava's cheek, which instantly makes her squeal in ticklish delight.

"Don't encourage him, honey," Andy playfully admonishes her daughter before giving her husband one of her stern looks. "Would it be better if I brooded," she asks furrowing her forehead, attempting to give her best impression of Detective Swarek.

"I don't _brood_," he all but scoffs at the word. This only makes Andy cackle loudly to such an extent that she falls to her back in hysterics.

Sam gives her a pair of raised eyebrows, as she attempts to get a hold of her laughing fit. Turning back onto her side, she lets him in on a little secret that everyone at 15 Division knows.

"Oh, you _brood_, Swarek. You're a brooder."

"Am _not_."

"Are _too_," Andy shoots back childishly.

"Ba-ba," Ava prattles sticking the rattle up in the air almost hitting Sam on the side of the head with it.

"Feeling left out, Princess?" he asks her giving her another kiss on the cheek.

"Like father, like daughter," Andy sing-songs, resting her _cheek_ in the _palm_ of her hand giving Sam one of her _'I've got your number, Swarek'_-looks.

"Oh yeah?" he asks leaning forward so that their noses almost touch.

"Yeah..," she nods her head at his question.

"Maybe I do _brood_," Sam finally concedes. "But the constant babbling that's a McNally family trait." He winks at her.

"I thought you liked my mouth, Swarek?" Andy whispers.

"Oh, I do." He declares. "Especially when you use it to tell me how much you love me, Ava and our life together. But most of all..," Sam touches the tip of his nose to hers making her gasp out loud. "I just love you."

"That's good because I kinda love you too, Swarek," she smiles brightly at him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah..," Andy promises with a nod of her head. "Even if you are a _brooder_."

"Come here, _babble-mouth_," Sam coaxes her to him, wagging his index finger at himself indicating that she should come closer.

"As you wish, _brooder_," Andy teases him right before their smiling mouths meet in a soft kiss right over Ava's gibbering body.

* * *

_**If they knew sweet little you,  
They'd end up loving you too.  
All those same people who scold you  
What they'd give just for the right to hold you.  
**_

* * *

"Figures, you'd be sitting in here unable to take your eyes off of _her_," Sam's favorite voice in the whole world tells him, pulling his eyes off of the framed photograph he's been staring at for quite some time now.

Well, _one_ of them.

"Hey..," he smiles wide at Andy, who's holding up the lunch that Sam had forgotten to take with him this morning. "Forgive me..?" he quips getting up from behind his desk to meet her in the middle of the office.

"Well..," she tilts her head up, looking into the ceiling playfully contemplating his question for a minute or two.

Apparently it's too long for Sam because suddenly he yanks Andy's body into his making her shriek out in surprise before he silences her with his mouth.

"Mmm..," she talks around his lips, combing the fingers of one hand into his hair, while the other hangs onto his lunch. "You're forgiven," Andy hums against Sam's lips.

"Mission accomplished then," he snatches his lunch out of Andy's grasp before walking back towards his desk with her gaping after him openmouthed.

"You _tease_," she snarls at his grinning face with dimples on full display, as Sam takes his seat behind his desk again.

That grin dissipates pretty quickly though because next thing Andy knows, he's shooting out of his chair and asking where Ava is.

"Oh," she wipes a hand through the air as if Sam has just asked her if she's done the grocery shopping yet. "I left her on the side of the road."

"What?!" he all but growls at the possibility of his little Princess being lost on the streets of Toronto.

Unable to keep her facial expression in check, Andy caves. "Relax, caveman," she holds both of her hands up in surrender as she walks to where he's standing behind his desk – pretty much pulling his hair out by this point.

"What?"

"She's with my dad," she tells him. "I needed to run some errands and it's really easier when I don't have to stop every five minutes when people want to say hello to our little miracle."

"Oh, okay," Sam releases a much-needed breath before taking a seat again.

"But I appreciate your trust in my capabilities to look after our daughter," Andy teases him.

"I didn't..," he begins to apologize right before realizing that she's pulling his proverbial leg. "Ha-ha, very funny."

"I thought so," she shrugs her shoulders, before walking around the desk to stand behind him. Bending down, she curls her arms around Sam's neck, making her hands meet under his chin. She leans her cheek against his as they gaze upon the photograph he had been staring at when Andy had arrived in his office.

"We're very lucky, Andy," he says thoughtfully.

"Yes, we are." She agrees taking in the photograph that had been taken when Ava had been no more than a couple of weeks old.

In the picture Ava is lying on a blanket – fast asleep, while Sam is lying next to her just watching over her with his hands folded underneath his chin.

Andy had snapped that picture knowing full-well that it represented what kind of a father Sam would be; the protective kind, the loving kind but above all else the kind of father that he himself had always wanted to have, but never had.

"Figures, you'd have a picture on your desk of you watching over our daughter like a hawk," she teases him.

"Hey, I have one of my two favorite girls too," Sam bops his head in the direction of a photograph of Andy and Ava that had been taken just a couple of weeks back.

Andy is holding their little girl up in the air, kissing her cheek and Ava is looking right at the camera mid-squeal with this wide toothless grin on her lips that melts Sam's heart every time he sees it.

He'd never used to want to have mementos like these around before Ava had been born or before he and Andy had even gotten back together. Sam assumes that he's always wanted to keep a distance between the workplace and the privacy sphere, but not anymore.

If he could, he'd shout it from the roof tops that he's the luckiest man alive because not only does he have a job that he loves, but Sam also has the love of the two women who make his entire would go round, and that's more than he's ever bargained for.

"I love that happy squeal of hers," Andy squeezes him tight and he reaches up to cover her hands with his own.

"Me too." He nods his head in agreement.

Life is good.

* * *

_**From your head down to your toes,  
You're not much, goodness knows.  
But you're so precious to me,  
Sweet as can be,  
Baby of mine.**_

* * *

The first time that Ava had gotten sick with a fever had also been the first time that Sam and Andy's parenting skills were really put to the test.

The little girl had been fussy and cranky all day home alone with Andy, so by the time that Sam had arrived home from work, Andy had been ready to collapse to the floor in tears.

Nothing she had done for Ava had seemed to have worked. Andy had rubbed her tummy, changed her, fed her, sung her lullabies – yes even that!

Nothing had worked.

Sam had been just as perplexed because really what kind of experience did he actually have in that area?

The closest he'd gotten to taking care of someone, while they were sick had been Andy with her morning sickness, and she'd even done most of the work.

While Sam had held a crying Ava in his arms, his wife had resorted to the only other way to help their daughter; a Google search.

"What does it say?" Sam asks over the piercing wails erupting from Ava's throat.

"It says a lukewarm bath might help," she answers scrolling down the page she had been directed to by the search engine. "And to only dress her in lightweight clothing," Andy notes, while Sam takes in the purple onesie Ava has on deciding that had to fit the bill. "As well as making sure that the room she's in is comfortable – not too warm or too cold."

"Alright..," he nods his head in understanding, while shifting his weight from one foot to the other hoping that the motion can help calm Ava down – but no such luck.

When her cries only intensify, Andy slaps her hands to her face in utter exasperation and follows it up with a loud screech.

"Easy now..," Sam tells Andy, but really Ava too since the little girl is screaming her little head off.

"I don't get it Sam!" Andy looks up at him with shimmering eyes. "I've tried _everything_ and nothing's worked!" she exclaims.

"Just let me take her upstairs and see if I can't..," he searches for the right words because really he has no idea what he should do either. Shaking his head, Sam tells Andy that he is taking Ava upstairs with him for a little while.

Since it is a cool day outside, Sam slightly opens up a window in Ava's nursery before lying her down on the changing table. He figures that he might as well check to see if she needs a new diaper.

She doesn't.

And that is when he remembers something – awhile back, Traci had told him about when Leo had been a toddler and sick with a fever, and how it had helped settle him by cradling him against her chest – so he could hear her heart beating.

It might be a mother-thing but Sam is sure as hell going to try it – if nothing else then to check that one off of the list as well.

"Come here, Princess," he coos at Ava when her screaming begins to intensify again. "I know, I know..," Sam pats her cotton-clad bottom before walking them both over to the rocking chair by the window overlooking the garden. From there he can see where Boo has taken shelter – the dog has probably had enough screaming to last him a doggy lifetime.

Cradling Ava against his chest, he begins to rub her back while simultaneously moving back and forth in the rocking chair. Pretty soon the only sound that comes from her is small hiccupping gasps that tells him that maybe it has worked after all.

He'd be damned.

Becoming a father has changed him in many ways, but since the day that Ava had been born he's carried this fear around – a fear of losing Ava, of losing Andy – of not being able to provide or care for them.

And in this moment with Ava, he knows that being a good father doesn't depend on whether or not you had one growing up or if you had a father that had gone to all of your hockey games – _this_ is what it depends on.

The unconditional love between a parent and their child.

And Sam has that.

Later in the evening when Boo needs to go for a walk and Sam needs to stand in a vertical position, he walks him and Ava down into the kitchen; the little girl is still a little bit fussy, but the screaming fits have ceased.

"Hey..," he whispers to Andy, who has just finished loading up the dishwasher from their dinner. Sam had nibbled on the food in the nursery with Ava fixed to his chest, while Andy sat in the kitchen with Boo.

"Hey..," she smiles at him and the sight of their daughter being calm in his arms.

"I'm gonna take Boo for a walk," Sam tells her and just like that Andy's entire face distorts into one of utter desperation.

"What..?" she whispers. "You can't!" Andy hisses at him – softly enough to not disturb Ava, but firm enough to get her point across.

She can't care for Ava.

"It'll be okay, Andy," Sam tells her. "Just keep her close to your chest, and let your heartbeat calm her down."

Andy rolls her eyes at _that_ idea.

She had felt like utter crap all day, having been home alone with a sick Ava, and now Sam is leaving her so he can walk Boo?

She could walk him.

"Alright, Princess," Sam hums against the little girl's head. "Mommy wants to hold you now," he says passing the baby into Andy's reluctant arms.

"It better be a short walk..," she warns her husband, who merely winks at her – now holding Boo's leash in his hands.

"You'll be fine, look..," Sam gestures at the merely fussing Ava in Andy's arms, while he's standing in the doorway of the backdoor.

Unfortunately enough the minute Boo spots his leash in Sam's hands, he begins to bark, which prompts Ava to snap out of her tranquilly state and she begins to cry relentlessly again.

Sam gives Andy an _'I'm so sorry, Sweetheart'-_ look but goes on his walk with Boo after she's gestured with her hands that he should just go.

"Shh..," she bops from one foot to the other in the hopes of coaxing the Ava that she'd held in her arms merely minutes ago back out, but to no avail. "Come on, honey," Andy shifts the baby higher up to perch her head on her shoulder. "What is it you want, eh?" she asks.

Then suddenly her earlier Google search is all but waving at her from the kitchen table where the lap top is still standing. She'd forgotten to shut the thing off earlier.

A lukewarm bath maybe?

Fifteen minutes later, Andy has made them a bath – she makes sure that the water is at its right temperature before stripping them both down.

She carefully slides into the warm water with Ava in her arms, and once Andy's back is pressed up against the porcelain edge of the tub, she cradles her little girl against her chest – much like Sam had done earlier in the nursery.

As if on cue, Ava's cries begin to lessen in strength and she lets out one big yawn. While Andy rubs Ava's back in soothing motions, she can feel her daughter's body relaxing, allowing hers to also.

Andy's insecurities about being a mother vanish in that moment when she can hear Ava's deep breathing – signaling that she has fallen asleep in her mother's arms.

This is also the moment where Andy realizes that it doesn't matter that she hasn't grown up with Claire or that she doesn't have one of those tight-knit relationships with her mother that other women her age have – she has Ava and Ava has her.

Andy smiles to herself, and knows within herself that _that_ is all that matters.

* * *

_**All those same people who scold you,  
What they'd give just for the right to hold you.**_

* * *

"Who is _this_ little angel?" Oliver coos at Ava when she and her mother are waiting for Sam to finish up his paperwork.

The little girl raises a chubby hand towards Shaw, who immediately grabs onto it – his love for his Goddaughter as evident as the light of day.

"Hello Oliver," Andy all but laughs since her colleague only has eyes for her daughter at the moment.

Not that Andy blames him for that, but still.

Ava is secured in a carrying sling with her back pressed up against Andy's front so that the little girl can see the world from her spot on her mother's chest.

"Hi, McNally," Oliver finally pipes up before being drawn into the beauty that is Ava. "She'll be a heartbreaker, you just wait," he says. "Give her a good fourteen years and Sammy will be kneeling in your front yard with a shot gun to shoot down any would-be admirers."

Ava gives her Godfather one of her toothless grins, and Andy kisses her daughter on the crown of her head whispering that she shouldn't give Uncle Ollie any good ideas.

"Should have known that my two favorite girls are in the building," Sam notes kissing Andy softly on the lips.

"And why is that?" she asks with an arched brow.

"Because..," he begins to say but when Ava moves her mouth towards him, Sam bows down, and gives her his cheek to kiss. After an incredibly sloppy, openmouthed kiss from his Princess, Sam picks up his sentence again. "No one's doing their jobs when you two are around."

"Right..," Oliver drawls the word out slowly making it abundantly clear that Sam is just as unable to work when they're around as the rest of them.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" he quips at his friend.

"Nope!" Shaw exclaims folding his arms in front of his chest as a sign that there's no other place he'd rather be right now.

"Whatever..," Sam scoffs before getting Ava out of the carrying sling and into his all-too willing arms. "Aren't we missing a member of our pack?" he asks searching the floor for one Labradoodle named Boo.

Andy runs her bottom lip through her teeth before looking back towards where the break room is. "He got held up..?" she tries but fails miserably when Sam gives her a pair of raised eyebrows.

"As in held up in a robbery..?" he quips. "Or…as in Price having cornered my furry brother and won't let him go until she's fed him some spicy foods again?"

Andy can't keep from smiling at Sam's protectiveness over Boo – Ava, _yes,_ but their dog? Sam has become more and more territorial since their daughter made her entrance.

"She's not _that_ bad, Sam." She tries to play peacemaker knowing that Chloe is not on her husband's top-ten list of people that he likes.

"_Not_ that bad?" he all but gasps at her words. "The dog could barely walk straight for a week after that egg roll she force fed him."

"Sam..," Andy sighs at the way he's embellishing what really happened back when Chloe had without thinking given Boo an egg roll. And the dog hadn't been incapacitated for a week, an hour _maybe_.

"Fine," he groans before they say their goodbyes to Oliver and make their way to the break room.

"You know what I think..?" Andy asks, linking her arm through Sam's, while the three of them walk down the hallway.

"No, but we can't wait to hear what mommy has to tease us with now – can we Princess?" Sam coos at Ava.

"I think," she starts to say but not before nudging him in his side for his little barb at her. "That you're still a little angry about when I was trying to ask her if she and Dov would watch Ava for a couple of hours and she…"

"…thought it was Boo that we needed her to watch?" Sam remembers it well. He also remembers the way that Price had almost fallen all over herself to make up excuses for why they couldn't do it when it had been Ava that they'd be watching. "Like anyone would miss out on time with my Princess for practice shooting, eh?" he grins wide down at Ava, who looks up at her daddy like he's the second coming.

Andy shakes her head at the pair of them when they reach the doorway of the break room and watch as Boo is gulping down water, while Chloe is sitting next to him patting his back.

"Epstein ought to get that girl a dog of her own, so she'll lay off mine," Sam whispers quietly into Andy's ear.

"Excuse you?" she asks with a raised brow.

"Sorry," he coughs before amending his sentence. "_Ours_."

* * *

_**From your head down to your toes  
You're not much, goodness knows.  
But you're so precious to me,  
Sweet as can be,  
Baby of mine.  
Baby of mine**_

* * *

Andy loves the sound of Ava's high-pitched squealing – also known as her laughter paired up with Sam's soft voice.

It's _home_ to her.

After dinner, Sam had said that he'd bathe their little angel since he'd been at work all day and Andy had taken care of Ava.

Andy has just finished loading up the dish washer, and is standing in the doorway of the bathroom watching as he bathes their daughter.

He has her in one of those small plastic tubs inside their larger one – for protection. Sam had been an utter nightmare back when they'd shopped for things for Ava before she'd even been born. Everything had to have the stamp of approval and nothing less than five stars would make do for their little girl.

Andy watches as Ava flails her chubby little hands in the water making Sam laugh aloud – even when the water soaks his grey tee shirt through and through.

"You little runt," he playfully scolds his princess before rubbing some soap in his hands and sudsing up Ava's brown hair.

The little girl merely gives her daddy a toothless grin, and Sam dissolves on the spot – like he always does. He's a sucker for Ava.

"You just gonna stand there and gawk all day, McNally?" he quips as he's massaging the soap into the baby's hair.

"You noticed me, eh, Swarek?" Andy asks walking further into the room.

When Ava notices her mother, her face contorts into a huge grin and she raises her chubby hands; a clear indication that she wants to be picked up by Andy.

"Not yet, Princess," Sam tells her grabbing a cup from the sink and filling water in it to rinse out the soap from Ava's hair. "I always notice you," he tells Andy before holding a hand in front of the baby's eyes, while pouring the water from the cup down over her head.

After bath time is over, Sam picks up Ava out of the tub and wraps her in a pink Disney Princess hoodie towel. During one of his pre-Ava shopping sprees, it had been something he had decided that she would need.

Andy drains the water from the tub, while he puts a diaper on the baby. Per their bedtime routine, Sam bends down and blows raspberry kisses on Ava's tummy making her squeal in delight, her little feet kicking up a storm.

Andy takes in the scene unfolding in front of her, and feels like the happiest woman on earth standing in the room with the two loves of her life.

Sam and Ava.

"Now what?" he asks having caught Andy in mid-trance staring at him and their daughter.

"What?" she shrugs pulling out a pink onesie from the small bureau, and walking towards them.

"You were doing _that_ thing again," Sam muses taking the onesie from Andy with a big grin on his lips.

It's not so much from what he'd just caught Andy doing, but more due to which onesie she'd chosen for Ava to wear to bed tonight.

A pink onesie with the text; _**'DADDY'S LITTLE PRINCESS'**_.

"What _thing_?" she asks taking the onesie from Sam again and beginning to pull it over Ava's head.

"You were staring," he tells her. "Not that I mind, I mean..," he scoffs exaggeratedly. "Who wouldn't?" he shrugs his shoulders.

After having gotten Ava into her onesie, Andy picks her up and turns around to look at her husband, who can't contain the smirk on his face.

"It just hits me sometimes," she says.

Sam's smirk dissipates at that, and he turns serious browns on her. "What does, Andy?" he asks tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, while rubbing Ava's back with the other.

Their daughter has already nestled herself in her favorite spot; the one right between Andy's neck and shoulder; the very spot that smells like her mommy.

She's fast asleep.

"How lucky I am."

"_We_ are," Sam corrects her.

"_We_ are," she repeats after him.

"I know what you mean," he says kissing Andy on the forehead before continuing. "To think that we might not even have _this_," Sam says remembering a time when they'd basically been at each other's throats because the pregnancy tests kept on coming up negative.

"But we do."

"Yes, we do," he kisses Ava on the back of the head before leading her and Andy out of the bathroom and into the nursery.

After having tucked their miracle into bed, they take a minute to gaze upon Ava's heaving chest and when that minute has turned into twenty like it always does - Sam steps forward to turn on the baby monitor.

He kisses Ava goodnight followed by Andy, and then he leads her out of the nursery. In the hallway they meet Boo, who just looks up at them with drowsy eyes.

"The guard dog is here," Sam announces before patting Boo on the head followed by Andy giving the dog a kiss on that very spot too.

Ever since they came home from the hospital with Ava, the dog had dubbed himself her _'guard'_ – unwilling to give up his spot for anything or anyone.

In fact, back when the baby had been sick with a fever, it had been Boo, who'd alerted Sam and Andy to the fact that she'd been sick by nudging his wet nose at their bare feet in the bed until one of them had heard him whimpering.

Man's best friend and all.

"Goodnight Boo," Andy tells him, as Sam leads her across the hall to their bedroom.

Much later, when they're lying facing each other in bed, Sam tells her about the case that he's working on with Nash, and that they might've caught a break.

"That's great," Andy yawns aloud - unable to stifle it with the palm of her hand in time.

"Long day?" he asks on a smile.

"I guess so," she shrugs her shoulders.

"I wouldn't trade this for anything, you know?" Sam suddenly says seemingly out of the blue.

"What?" Andy asks with narrowed eyes.

"_This;_ us; you, me, Ava…"

"…and Boo..?" she asks smiling.

"Yeah, there was a time when I didn't think that any of this would even be a possibility for me, and now that it is..," Sam says.

"Yeah?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," he smiles at her.

"Good, because we're not going anywhere,"

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Leaning in, Sam presses a kiss to Andy's lips meaning for it to be a soft, but quick kiss, but the minute that Andy's tongue brushes against his – it's a done deal.

Coating her body with his, Sam fists his fingers in her hair feeling the chemistry that always exists between them, tugging at his heart strings.

Looking into her brown pools, he can't keep from uttering three words that a few years back had been so very difficult for him to utter.

But not anymore - not with Andy or Ava.

They are his life. They give his life meaning - a sense of purpose, of belonging. And Sam knows that Andy feels the exact same way.

"I love you."

Framing his face with her hands, feeling Sam's heart beating against her own makes Andy realize how happy she is that it was her, who'd knocked him on his ass in that back alley all those years ago.

He's _hers_.

She's _his_.

And Ava's _theirs_.

"I love you too."

**FIN!**


End file.
